


The Lost Boy

by sabrina



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-20
Updated: 2010-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-07 09:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabrina/pseuds/sabrina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><span class="u">Hogwarts: A History</span>, revised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lost Boy

It was incomplete.

She had told herself to stick to the facts. That was all they had asked for – all they needed. But the facts were empty and imperfect.

She sat in the back bedroom, the day's ending sun dancing across the desk so that the parchment of imperfect details seemed to glow against the aging oak desk. The light had gone from harsh and unforgiving to soft and golden during the time she had sat there. The parchment was unreadable through the scratch-outs and revisions. Had she known it would be such a difficult task, she wouldn't have agreed to contribute, in spite of the honour in being asked to do so.

Why wasn't it easier? She had lived the events, after all. It should be easy for her to put the facts to paper. Yet how could you summarize the life of any man in one thousand words or less? How to summarize the life of this particular man in one thousand words or less? One thousand words? Why hadn't they given her inches of parchment instead? Her handwriting had always been small.

Hermione Granger ran her finger along the edge of the quill. Impatience or no, she understood the word limit. It was Hogwarts: A History, after all, not a biography of the Headmaster. She'd been asked for one of those as well, 'a real one, not that Skeeter gibberish!', but she'd declined. In the end, she might write the book after all. She was the unofficial communicator, pensieve, and spokesperson of their year; She always had been. There were few better qualified to write such a book than she, and those who were would not consider writing; would, in fact, avoid the idea of it altogether.

She signed in frustration. Ron would be back soon. The children finished with ice creams and hyper from both outing and sugar would come rushing through the room and once again she would be unable to sift through the information. It had been this way for nearly a month. Ron had been surprisingly understanding and helpful, finding excuses for the park, for playing a set of Quidditch, for taking them over to Harry and Ginny's. It was much appreciated, but ten drafts later, it was still not enough. Hermione knew something was missing. The words sat in front of her, sluggish and miserable and Hermione was certain that she would never again agree to write. The publishers had begun sending polite, but direct owls asking about her contribution. Thankfully, they had not yet sent the howlers.

One of Hogwarts bravest Headmasters, he was perhaps the most misunderstood (with the exception of Geraldine O'Lange, headmistress during the early fifteenth century, see page --). Headmaster Severus Snape attended Hogwarts from the years 1971 – 1978. Sorted into Slytherin House, he would later return to Hogwarts from 1981 – 1996 as Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin House. The following year would see his move to the Defense against the Dark Arts professor, a job he had professed to want since his inception at Hogwarts.

During his adolescence Severus Snape had joined Lord Voldemort and his followers participating in the terror that led up to the first war. During the early eighties, Snape, urged on by the personal realization of the actions he was participating in, turned to then headmaster and leader of the Order of the Phoenix, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (see page --) for assistance. The years that followed would demonstrate the true moral code and bravery of Severus Snape…

The biography continued on, drier than a digestive and far less entertaining. Hermione pulled her hair back in her hands, twisting it so that it would stay away from her face. The biographical entry had been interesting once, full of tidbits about the Boy Who Lived, the war, and Severus' personal relationships. But that had felt too personal, as if in the relating of the truth she was sharing too much of someone who had, by necessity and by nature, been a very private man. As the sentences were stripped, so was her interest in the entry until the over 3000 words that remained were relating the certainty of another man's existence with none of the passion and fire she knew must have existed under her former Professor's icy exterior.

And perhaps the facts were enough. In her minds eye she couldn't help but feel that Professor Snape would have thought so. Certainly it had been what he expected in his classroom – don't bother with half-truths or inaccurate details. He had been so irritated by Harry's fame, how would he feel if he knew that in the end the papers had printed almost as much about him as they had Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived? Although they knew no details, that had never before stopped the _Daily _Prophet__ from reporting what they knew or what they could make up before the press deadline, and once the rumours of Harry's words at the final battle had reached them they had eagerly reported and imagined in equal turn. Hermione had urged Harry to tell the correct version of the story – elsewhere from the _Prophet_ if he would not speak to them – but Harry had been uninterested. His disgust with the _Prophet_ seemed to extend to all papers, and he had stopped reading the news for two years, focusing instead on his Auror training, and avoiding all mention of the war but the Wizengamot sessions he was constantly requested to attend. She was certain Severus Snape would have despised the stories, equal parts sentimentalism and half-truths, but Hogwarts: A History, was different. It was honourable and respected, like the Order of Merlin Snape had received posthumously and which now hung in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts. Hermione couldn't help but think that Professor Snape would have liked that he was remembered – and with an Order of Merlin! He had been so disappointed when his Order of Merlin for capturing Black had been stripped away.

A rueful half smile touched her lips. Sirius and Snape had been so wrong about each other, and yet at the same time, in their own way they had been partially right. They were an entire generation lost in the depths of hatred, dislike, paranoia and outright hostility that seemed to have bred within the halls of Hogwarts during those years as thick as the mist the Dementors created during the second war. Unity had been a myth during Severus Snape's Hogwarts years. More so perhaps than it had been during her own Hogwarts education. And yet, unified there might have been a chance for peace. Perhaps that was the lesson she should focus on: The way to make the biography factual and meaningful. Would Professor Snape approve of his life being used in such a way?

The clock behind her continued ticking and she picked up her notes again: A discussion with Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout: notes she'd taken when Harry had allowed her to view the memories Snape had left him. Hermione had visited the pensieve time after time, trying to figure out who Severus Snape had been behind the mask of cool, competent, and occasionally cruel Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin House. She was determined to do justice to the story of Severus Snape, but in the end she wasn't certain she really knew him after all. The man who had taught her was not the one who had befriended Lily Potter. Leaving her to wonder exactly who was Severus Snape?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Over the next week, between children and public events she and Ron were required to be at, Hermione's mind mulled over the notes. Memories that weren't her own replayed in her head as she tried to get into the head of a man she was supposed to be memorializing for future generations of Hogwarts students – at least those who, like herself, would read Hogwarts: A History. The facts were all there, but without the relationships, Hermione lost him in a maze of dates and events.

Monday evening she went to the Potter's hoping to speak to Harry. She had her draft and she was hoping he would read it, talk to her about it. She'd changed and deleted things and yet three drafts later, she was not content with the words she had written: far too numerous and yet still too few. Now she sat at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea Ginny had given her and waiting. Ginny was sympathetic, her own memories of Snape now shaped immeasurably by the knowledge of hindsight, but Ginny was also distracted. She'd never had the ability to focus single-mindedly on an assignment as Hermione had.

"Albus Severus!" her sister in law's voice broke into her thoughts, and Hermione glanced up to see Harry's son stomping through the kitchen with mud on his boots. Albus looked about sheepishly, looking at once like both of his namesakes: The mischievous twinkle in his eye was Headmaster Dumbledore's: the confidence in his walk could have easily belonged to a pre-Hogwarts Severus Snape, confident in his future. As Ginny herded the boy across the kitchen, her wand out and spells scrubbing the Wellingtons off in the garden, Hermione stared. She hadn't expected that. For the first time in the past three months of research and memories and pensieve visits Hermione could see Severus as the boy who might have been and the man he might have become.

He was not that different from the boy she could see trying to explain how he had gotten mud on his chin, or the father that had just materialized on the front stoop listening patiently to an extremely upset Ginny. Hermione realized that she did not need to have her draft read through. She had found Severus Snape.

That night she put her children to sleep and despite Ron's protests, went immediately to her desk. The deadline was at the end of the week, but she knew she would work late into the evening to complete the entry tonight. Snape's own memories mixed with her memories of him mixed with the Sorting Hat's songs mixed with Professor McGonagall's pragmatic discussion, mixed with this vision in her head of what might have been in a different Hogwarts.

_'…Sometimes I think we sort too soon…'_

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

**To:** Morgana Eddington, editor Hogwarts: A History  
**From:** Hermione Granger

Dear Ms Eddington,

Please find enclosed the requested biographical entry for Severus Snape, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the 1997 – 1998 school year. I have enclosed a photograph, which may be of interest to you. It was taken by a housemate, Dennis Creevey and displays the Order of Merlin and photograph of Headmaster Snape that currently hangs in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts.

I appreciate the opportunity to write for Parchment Publishing. Please contact me by owl if you have any further requests or questions regarding my entry and I will arrange a time for a floo call.

Sincerely,  
Hermione J. Granger

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

>   
> **Severus Snape**  
> _Head of Slytherin House 1981 – 1997; Headmaster of Hogwarts 1997 – 1998  
> Professor: Potions 1981 – 1996  
> Professor: Defense against the Dark Arts 1996 – 1997_
> 
> They were the Lost Generation of Hogwarts, the boys and girls who became their own worst enemies as they lined up in turn behind two of the most powerful wizards of the twentieth century. Severus Snape, was one of these children, arriving at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the autumn of 1971. The sorting hat placed Severus, ambitious, clever, and resourceful, into Slytherin House, where he spent the next seven years among housemates who would nearly all join the fight of the dark wizard Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle. In 1978, Snape would complete his education at Hogwarts to join in the terror that led to the first war.
> 
> Muggle literature refers to the Lost Boys as the boys who never grew up: The Lost Generation of Hogwarts grew up too soon. Seeking recognition for his talents, and the ability to become someone in the new governmental regime, Severus Snape joined Voldemort and participated with seemingly no regrets until the early eighties. It is assumed it was the spring of 1981, shortly before the first defeat of Voldemort by Harry Potter (the Boy Who Lived) that Severus Snape returned to Hogwarts and to then headmaster and leader of the resistance against Voldemort's Death Eaters Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (see page --).
> 
> Severus Snape sought forgiveness for crimes committed and protection for a friend targeted by his ill chosen Master. Albus Dumbledore saw the potential of a man others saw as cruel and uncompassionate. The price required of Severus Snape would be service to the Dumbledore's resistance organization, the Order of the Phoenix. The compensation would be employment and ultimately sixteen years of relative comfort despite the dangers Snape would later face. Severus returned to Hogwarts in September 1981, employed as Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin House. With the first defeat of Lord Voldemort a mere two months later, Igor Karkaroff who would later become Headmaster of Durmstrang Institute denounced Snape as a Death Eater. It was Albus Dumbledore's words that kept Severus Snape out of Azkaban prison and continuing to instruct at Hogwarts.
> 
> The next decade was quiet and comfortable for Severus Snape. He was employed with a comfortable salary in a respected position. Despite his stint in front of the Wizengamot many parents were unaware of the truth of the accusations. In 1991, Harry Potter arrived at Hogwarts; perhaps not coincidentally, a much-weakened Voldemort returned the same year. The years that followed would demonstrate the true moral code of Severus Snape. Snape's freedom from the Death Eaters came at a cost most men would be unwilling to pay. As the dark wizard began once more his ascent to power, Severus Snape began once more to work his way into Voldemort's inner circle. With a bravery more likely to be attributed to those in the house of Gryffindor than in the house of Slytherin, Snape lived the next seven years on a tight rope, outwardly maintaining an appearance of Hogwarts Professor, convincing his former master that his loyalties were with him, while truly giving his loyalties to Albus Dumbledore. Ultimately Dumbledore's request for Severus Snape's loyalty demanded years of solitude, deception, and constant danger, with no recognition of the bravery the Head of Slytherin House truly possessed.
> 
> Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore worked behind closed doors – not only from the outside world, but also from the Order of the Phoenix. Within it all was the plan to place Snape in a position where he could continue to be useful even after the tables had turned. In late Spring of 1997, Severus Snape, acting on Albus Dumbledore's orders, 'murdered' the Headmaster in front of witnesses at Hogwarts. The following fall, the Ministry of Magic was under the control of the Death Eaters and Snape was instated to Headmaster of Hogwarts School, by all outward appearances at the orders of the dark wizard Voldemort. In reality, this instatement was the desire of Albus Dumbledore who wanted to ensure that when he was gone, the students of Hogwarts would be kept safe when he could no longer do so.
> 
> When Severus Snape died, murdered at the hand of the Master he had done so much to thwart, only hours before the freedom he had sought could have been his, he died an unsung hero of a war that had been fought with his life and those of his classmates. An imperfect man in his youth, he had nonetheless fought bravely against evil and his actions were essential to the defeat of Voldemort and his armies. In the end, the truth was given to Harry Potter; the hope of the new generation of wizards Professor Severus Snape had worked so tirelessly to keep safe.
> 
> The Sorting Hat keeps its secrets well, but it is not unusual for it to debate houses before sorting. Did it do so with Severus Snape? We will never know for certain, but it seems likely that Snape, with his ambition, loyalty, bravery, and intelligence might have been difficult for the sorting hat to place.
> 
> The Sorting Hat still sings at Hogwarts, with its tales of the importance of companionship, connections between houses, and tolerance for those of different birth and strengths than a student might be used to. Stereotypes decide a house: Gryffindors are brave, Slytherins are ambitious, Hufflepuffs are loyal, and Ravenclaws are clever. In reality each student is a mix of ambition, loyalty, bravery, and cleverness and nowhere is this more apparent than in the only Headmaster in Hogwarts history whose portrait does not grace the walls of the Headmaster's tower office. In those final months of his life, Severus Snape was too busy holding back the Death Eater Professors on his staff, giving secret assistance to the Boy Who Lived, and seeking to make Albus Dumbledore's last requests a reality: There was no time to sit to be painted.
> 
>   
> **Photo Credit:** Dennis Creevey; "Portait of Severus Snape, Order of Merlin, first class"  
> **Caption:** Order of Merlin, First Class; Severus E. Snape  
> _"By order of the Minister of Magic, Severus E. Snape is hereby awarded the honor of Order of Merlin, First Class for never blinking under the eyes of evil, showing outstanding bravery, cleverness, loyalty, and determination." _  
>   
  
---


End file.
